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Debt Crisis Continues

The Associated Press
COLLEGE STUDENTS outside the White House Saturday appeal to President Obama and congressional leaders meeting inside to reach a compromise during negotiations on the debt limit crisis.

Lawmakers’ no-tax pledge violates the Constitution

To the Editor:

More than 240 Republican members of the House signed a pledge to one Grover Norquist saying that they will never vote to increase taxes. This has meant that they cannot even discuss such issues as:

Ö Removing the Bush tax cuts for billionaires which add trillions of dollars to the United States deficits.

Ö Ending the tax breaks where major corporate CEOs pay lower taxes than their secretaries and corporations such as GE pay no taxes at all.

Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, who was elected to serve our community, signed the Norquist pledge. Why didn’t she tell us so when she was campaigning for office?

A member of Congress is supposed to vote for what best serves his/her constituents and the nation. Any pledge which abdicates that duty violates a Constitutional obligation; it is an attack upon America’s voters and its middle class.

William S. Andrews
Syracuse

Some changes are needed, but spare the hypocrisy

To the Editor:

We must change how we spend our money. But the hypocrisy of some of our politicians amazes me.

Paul Ryan and Michele Bachmann run down the steps of the Capitol and get into the SUVs we pay for and put the fuel in, driven by people whose salaries and benefits we pay. Nowhere do I see or hear them offering any sacrifices. Did Bachmann offer to stop taking the farm subsidies we have been paying her for years not to farm? I must have missed that announcement.

As a taxpayer, I paid into Social Security from 1960, when I started working, until I stopped in 2006. I paid into Medicare from its inception in 1965. So pardon me if I wonder why those two programs are the first places to make cuts.

We need to look into means testing, as the president suggested. Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates or Speaker John Boehner don’t need us to pay their hospital and doctor costs, do they? It would not bankrupt them to raise the limit on salaries for which they pay social security taxes, would it?

Remember that Bill Clinton raised taxes, and his was the only modern administration with a surplus at the end of his second term — which his successor immediately gave away as tax breaks, and we all see how well that worked out.

Karen Gooley
Liverpool

Republicans choose politics over views of economists

To the Editor:

Recently, economist Lawrence Summers stated said our No. 1 national priority is to increase demand for goods and services to gain job growth. Five steps are needed:

Ö An extension of employment insurance benefits.

Ö Tax relief for employers and employees.

Ö Stimulus funds to build infrastructure.

Ö Federal steps to increase exports.

Ö Federal aid to states and municipalities.

Summers, Harvard economist, was President Obama’s chief economic adviser in 2009-10 and secretary of the treasury in 1999-2001.

Economist Paul Krugman of Princeton, a 2008 Nobel Prize winner, and most other top economists agree with Summers.

The Republicans disagree. They say the key to higher employment is lower taxes and less government spending. Are they smarter than our nation’s best economists?

There is a growing suspicion that Republicans are doing all they can to have a weak economy in 2012 to defeat President Obama. In other words, they are willing to keep millions of job seekers unemployed through November 2012 to gain their political objectives.

John Fitzsimmons
Syracuse

Protesters ask Buerkle to spare safety-net benefits

To the Editor:

As Washington continued to fail to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, 25 local residents representing MoveOn.org’s The American Dream Movement and other organizations gathered Tuesday at noon at Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle’s Syracuse office. This protest was one of many nationwide.

Concerns that individuals expressed were to save veterans’ benefits, disability benefits, Social Security, Medicare, affordable and adequate health care, and Medicaid benefits. The protesters wanted to ensure corporations and millionaires pay their fair share of taxes. Buerkle was in favor of closing tax loopholes. It is still uncertain what type of cuts Buerkle would favor.

Linda Griggs
Syracuse

To become a Republican, target the middle class

To the Editor:

While we are waiting to see if the Republicans can agree on anything other than defending their rich donors, I created a list of what it takes to become a Republican.

Republicans seem unafraid to tell you what they want and what they hate. First, you must want the middle class to become extinct. Only the wealthy deserve the rewards. Unions, health care, retirement funds and high wages — all must go away.

The elderly should continue working until they drop. How dare they receive Social Security and Medicare benefits? Even though the rich — or as the Republicans refer to them, “the job creators” — have had all the tax cuts and special treatments but have not created jobs for years, they must not be forced to share in any expenses that might help the country. Going after the teachers is the correct path. Blame it on them.

Those who consider themselves part of the middle class and yet vote Republican need their heads examined.